A univalent verb has only one argument, the noun or pronoun which is prefixed to it (this is called the explicit argument). A bivalent verb has, in addition to the explicit argument, a 2nd one which is implicit. This can be either the K-person, the matrix or host argument, or it can coreference the noun-part of a preceding word in the same clause.
The agent of a bivalent verb is the argument role which is more agent-like while the patient is the argument role which is more patient-like. For example, the perceiver of "see" is the agent and the thing perceived the patient. With spatial relations, the location is the patient and the entity located is the agent.
Grammatical voice applies only to bivalent verbs, which have five of them: direct, inverse, antipassive, passive, and reflexive. A bivalent verb is either agent-oriented, in which case the direct voice is 0-marked, or patient-oriented, in which case the inverse voice is 0-marked. The following table gives the suffixes for each stem class, the tags, and the interpretation for each voice (in terms of which matching argument to role):
| Suffixes | Tag | Voice | Agent | Patient | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ā | -ē | -ō | -ā | -VYā | -Dir | direct | explicit | implicit |
| -@ra | -ira | -ura | -ara | -VVra | -Inv | inverse | implicit | explicit |
| -ās@ | -ēs@ | -ōs@ | -ās@ | -VYās@ | -Ant | antipassive | explicit | indefinite |
| -ēn@ | -īn@ | -ūn@ | -ān@ | -VYēn@ | -Pas | passive | indefinite | explicit |
| -@xu | -ixu | -uxu | -axu | -VVxu | -Rfx | reflexive | explicit | explicit |
| -@ | -i | -u | -a | -VV | direct or inverse, depending on class | |||
| @ | e, o, or 0, depending on adjacent consonants | |||||||
| V | short vowel | |||||||
| VV | long vowel or diphthong | |||||||
| Y | i, u, h, or 0, depending on adjacent vowels | |||||||
The passive (-Pas) and antipassive (-Ant) suffixes cause the implicit argument to be the equivalent of an indefinite pronoun. The reflexive (-Rfx) suffix assigns both agent and patient role to the explicit argument, leaving the implicit one unused. All three of these suffixes reduce the valence of the verb, making a bivalent one effectively univalent.
In the following, inflections that haven't been covered yet are left out. First, an example for each grammatical voice using an agent-oriented verb:
| cattuguenoc. | direct | cattuguenrac. | inverse | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cattu- | gueno-0-c | cattu- | guen-ra-c | ||
| cat- | see-Dir-Fac | cat- | see-Inv-Fac | ||
| "The cat sees me." | "I see the cat." | ||||
| cattuguenāsoc. | antipassive | cattuguenēnoc. | passive | ||
| cattu- | guen-āso-c | cattu- | guen-ēno-c | ||
| cat- | see-Ant-Fac | cat- | see-Pas-Fac | ||
| "The cat sees." | "The cat is seen." | ||||
| cattuguenxuc. | reflexive | ||||
| cattu- | guen-xu-c | ||||
| cat- | see-Rfx-Fac | ||||
| "The cat sees itself." | |||||
Next, an example for each grammatical voice using a patient-oriented verb:
| salunaidāc. | direct | salunaidoc. | inverse | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| salu- | naid-ā-c | salu- | naido-0-c | ||
| fish- | bite-Dir-Fac | fish- | bite-Inv-Fac | ||
| "The fish bit me." | "I bit the fish." | ||||
| salunaidāsoc. | antipassive | salunaidēnoc. | passive | ||
| salu- | naid-āso-c | salu- | naid-ēno-c | ||
| fish- | bite-Ant-Fac | fish- | bite-Pas-Fac | ||
| "The fish bit." | "The fish got bitten." | ||||
| salunaidoxuc. | reflexive | ||||
| salu- | naido-xu-c | ||||
| fish- | bite-Rfx-Fac | ||||
| "The fish bit itself." | |||||
page started: 2013.Aug.03 Sat
current date: 2013.Aug.04 Sun
content and form originated by qiihoskeh
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